Until Chuck’s National Guard unit had asked for volunteers to deploy and Chuck had raised his hand.
PJ’s world had caved in around her. She’d been heartbroken that Chuck would want to leave her and go to war. All she could see in her future was how alone she’d be. Her adoptive mother wouldn’t be around forever, her health having deteriorated over the past several years.
She’d been so upset, she’d thrown his ring in his face and told him she never wanted to see him again. Looking back, she realized how childish she’d been.
She hadn’t been there to see him off when he’d left for predeployment training. Hadn’t told him that she’d missed her period and suspected she was pregnant.
For a short time, PJ thought she could handle being a part of another person’s life. But then Chuck had left. Not long afterward, Terri Franks died of a heart attack, leaving her alone in the world, without money or a home to live in. She’d been saving money for years so that someday she could afford to start college online and study animal husbandry. When Terri died, all the money had gone to pay for Terri’s funeral.
Terri had been renting the house they lived in. When she’d passed, PJ had gone to work instead of college in order to pay the rent. But the rent had been too much for the meager earnings she’d gotten from the odd jobs she was able to get around town. Without family or a degree and any formal experience, she was destitute and alone. Everyone she’d ever loved was gone, making her promise herself never to get too close to anyone, lest they die and leave her.
Then Charlie came along....
A voice outside her door brought her out of her sad memories and across the room to press her ear to the door. From the deep timbre and pitch, PJ could tell it was Chuck. She peered through the peephole but couldn’t see him.
Something shuffled against the outside of the door. What was he doing?
She pressed her ear harder against the door and listened.
“She had a scare, but she’s all right,” Chuck was saying to someone.
Who was he talking to?
“Whoever broke in tonight won’t try again. He’ll have to go through me to get to her.”
PJ smiled, feeling better about going to sleep now than she had a few moments before.
Apparently Chuck planned to sleep in front of her door.
“We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Something bumped softly against the door, and all went silent.
PJ pressed a hand to the door. Chuck was on the other side. So close, and yet a huge chasm stretched between them. She’d kept knowledge of his daughter from him.
Even if he forgave her, she wasn’t sure she could let him back in her life.
Chapter Three
PJ rose early the next morning, fed Charlie, dressed and loaded the diaper bag with frozen breast milk and diapers for the day care. She had to be at the diner for the first shift.
She dreaded opening the door and waking Chuck after he’d spent the night sleeping in the hall. A twinge of guilt pinched her chest at the thought of him lying on a hard vinyl-tile floor all night, while she’d had a soft mattress and pillows to cushion her.
With the words to thank him poised on her lips, she hooked the infant carrier with Charlie in it on one arm and the diaper bag on the other and eased open the door.
The hallway was empty. Chuck’s door was closed. Had he slept outside all night or just part of it?
PJ let go of the breath she’d been holding, relieved she wouldn’t have to confront him yet. She’d spent the better part of the rest of her night tossing and turning, thinking about the man who’d attacked her, and more so, the one sleeping on the other side of her door.
She’d known that one day she’d have to tell Chuck about Charlie, and she’d been fully intending to tell him upon his return from his deployment. She thought she had two more months. The day had come sooner than she’d anticipated, and she hadn’t been ready.
PJ exited the building and hurried toward her car, hoping she wouldn’t run into Chuck outside. Charlie had fallen asleep in her infant carrier even before they’d left the apartment. Her little eyes scrunched as the full force of the morning sunlight shone down on her tiny face.
PJ juggled the carrier to unlock the car. Charlie whimpered but remained asleep.
As she settled the carrier into the car, PJ’s skin prickled and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She cast a glance over her shoulder.
No one was there, although she could have sworn a shadow shifted at the corner of the building. Snapping the seat into place, PJ straightened and faced the back of the resort building.
“Anyone there?” she called out, her voice shaky, her knees even shakier.
No answer. A curtain was pushed aside in a window above and Chuck peered down, half of his face covered in shaving cream.
Warmth filled PJ’s neck and cheeks. The man was ageless and looked as good today as he had a year ago when she’d been young and stupid in love. Seeing him standing there with his razor in his hand made PJ’s heart turn cartwheels against her ribs.
Chuck disappeared and reappeared at the sliding glass door on the balcony of his room, bare-chested, a towel slung over one shoulder. “Are you okay?” he called out.
The heat built in her cheeks as she nodded. “I’m fine.”
“I thought I heard you call out.”
“I talk to myself sometimes.” Feeling foolish and paranoid, she gave him half a smile. “Gotta go.” PJ slipped behind the wheel of her beat-up car and closed the door to avoid further conversation with the father of her child. What else could she say while standing in the parking lot and him hanging over the balcony? Welcome back? Sorry I didn’t tell you about your baby? Or, damn, you look good?
She shifted into Reverse, backed out of the parking space and pulled out onto the road. A glance in her rearview mirror confirmed that Chuck was still standing on the balcony, watching her. Below, at the corner of the building, something moved. PJ frowned, slowed the vehicle and shot a quick glance over her shoulder at the resort.
Nothing.
She supposed paranoia was bound to be a result of postattack jitters. With a shrug, she turned the corner and drove to the church day care on the other side of town where Charlie spent her days with Dana, who worked there part-time, and the other ladies who ran the child care program. She’d been going there since PJ started to work for Cara Jo at the diner two months prior.
PJ worked mornings, lunch and early afternoon. Late afternoon, she spent either at her computer or in the library taking college courses online.
Dana met her at the door to the infant room. “Running a little late, aren’t you?”
PJ dropped the diaper bag on the floor and slid the infant carrier off her arm. Dana took the carrier and set it on a counter, unbuckling Charlie from the restraints. “Hey, sweetie, come see Auntie Dana.”
Charlie’s eyes blinked open, and she stared up at Dana.
Regret tugged at PJ’s heart that she had to spend so much time away from her daughter. But she’d made a commitment to build a better life for herself and Charlie, and the only way she could do that was to get a degree. And she wouldn’t have been able to do that if not for the scholarship she’d received from an anonymous benefactor.
Dana lifted Charlie into her arms and stared across her downy hair to PJ. “So, did you meet him?”
“Meet who?” PJ pulled the bottles of breast milk from the diaper bag